I'm moving back to the USA from Australia in a couple of months and need to get an inexpensive car right away. What would be a good VW to get for $3k? I'm hoping to get an early Mk III Golf with < 100k miles on it, but perhaps that isn't realistic. What would you buy?
BTW, All I need it for is hauling me and my 2 bikes around. No serious need for speed, etc. Just reliability, economy etc
Too bad, Australia is cool. I wouldn't mind living there for a while after being there for 2 weeks on business.
This is your best choice. Either an A3 Jetta or Golf with the 2.0L and the manual transmission. My 1994 A3 Jetta still runs quite well at 187000 miles. It really averaged down on hardware failure after the weak links have been repaired. I have been driving it virtually trouble free for about 67000 miles now. A2s are a second choice if they were well maintained. If you had two cars, an A3 and A2 equal condition, I would get the A2 but they have time against them. As watercooled VWs get older they do not have the same 3rd party parts retaining ability as the aircooled VWs. They are also not very modular like the old aircooleds.
A2 and A3 parts available. If you don't wrench yourself, do not get anything older than an A3. A2s need TLC and you don't want to take them to the mechanic who would love to just rebuild it and retire on your wallet.
I also have a 1994 YJ Jeep Sahara Edition that I bought for $1800. I bought it when it had 189000 miles and now it has 193000 miles and works great especially after I replaced the rear brake shoes, changed all the lube fluids, axles, tranny, oil, transcase. It needs a new coolant system because it still has the original equipment but "does not" leak. Jeeps remind me of the aircooled VWs as they are very modular, easy to work on and fun to drive. 3rd party parts are also very available.
I also have an A2 16V GTI. While this is a project vehicle, it still would need constant maintenance due to it's age, history, type or engine and poor hardware designs. Did I also mention the electrical sucks and so does the brake system. It's old and the parts are expensive!!!
VW parts are more expensive than Jeep parts IMHO.
I have found that A1 VW parts are dirt cheap.... but I don't own anything newer than that to really compare... although I did have a friend that sold her 96 gold w/ 80k miles last year for $1500... cause the compressor was $$$$$ to replace... but she could have gotten the part from a junkyard for cheap :-/
you can get a decent A3 for under $3000... dont know how many are left under
100k though
That's a good price.
You sure can.
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